Makeda Saggau-Sackey’s Wedding Festivities Brought Ghanaian Traditions to a Chateau in France
“I’ve never been shy about making the first move,” says Makeda Saggau-Sackey, the founder of the lifestyle blog Glamazon Diaries. “After a long afternoon of shopping on Fifth Avenue, I decided to treat myself to a gin martini at the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis,” she remembers. That’s when she saw Thomas Rabioux, a senior manager at Louis Vuitton, sitting at the end of the bar having what looked like a martini all by himself. “I must have felt incredibly lucky that day because I shot my shot and asked the bartender to send over another round to him from me,” Makeda recalls. “It was the best $26 I’ve ever spent. He walked over to me with his martini, and we chatted the rest of the early evening.” They went on their official first date—a Sunday martini date night—three days later and have been inseparable ever since.
The two talked about getting married in 2020, but that didn’t come to fruition because Makeda’s father sadly passed away in June of 2019. “We knew the timing wasn’t right,” she says. “Was I frustrated at not being engaged? Of course! But I am also a firm believer in god having the right plans for me, so I bided my time and practiced patience.”
Then the pandemic happened and all of their plans went down the drain. “Thomas had ordered my custom ring back in March—which I didn’t know about—but then things shut down, so there was no ring in sight until mid-July. He later told me about the whole drama with the ring, which was ultimately delivered an hour before we were to set leave for a family visit in Virginia.”
The couple arrived in Virginia just before sunset. Later that evening, Makeda’s brother asked her to come outside. Makeda’s mom and two little brothers were standing on the balcony holding their phones while “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by Frank Sinatra played in the background. “I was still clueless at this point because my mom was on FaceTime with my uncle, and my brother was on his phone with my cousin Kwamena,” Makeda remembers. Her brother asked her to look down in the backyard. “Standing there was Thomas and my other niece Kaira holding up signs that spelled out ‘Will you marry me?’”
Thomas’s entire family lives in France and most of Makeda’s is in Ghana and Europe, so after the engagement, the two decided to have a destination wedding in his hometown of Poitiers, France.
They decided to hold their wedding on September 4, 2021. It was Labor Day weekend in the United States, meaning the Americans invited could take off work and attend and Europeans would be returning home from summer vacations. “We decided to host our American friends for 10 days in France since most of them had not taken a vacation since 2020,” Makeda says. “We had to reduce our guest count because of the pandemic and only allowed vaccinated friends and family to attend the wedding. These were some of the toughest conversations we had to have, but it was necessary to protect our parents and older family members as well as the children attending who were not eligible for a vaccine. Sadly, most of my family members that reside in Ghana could not attend because France was not allowing Ghanaian citizens to travel to France.”
The wedding festivities kicked off with four nights in Paris. Everyone stayed at the Hotel Splendide Étoile and the group embarked on experiences that included a trip to the newly opened Samaritaine for shopping and champagne, a sunset boat cruise, nightly private happy hours at the hotel bar, dinners at Loulou Paris, Girafe Paris, and Bambini, and a bridal brunch at Flora Danica on the Champs-Élysées.
Then a bus transported guests from Paris to Poitiers for a week in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France. “We wanted to give our guests a taste of Southwestern France with private chartered tours of Cognac, where they could choose between an afternoon spent at Maison Hennessy followed by a cognac tasting, or Remy Martin,” Makeda says. “We skipped Bordeaux and instead took guests to Saint-Émilion for an afternoon of wine, bike rides, and a gorgeous picnic at Château Soutard.”
Makeda and Thomas had originally discussed planning the wedding themselves, but since they couldn’t travel to France for venue and vendor visits, they decided to alleviate that stress and hire Madame Wedding Design. “This was especially helpful since France still required residents to have the Attestation de déplacement dérogatoire form in order to venture out,” Makeda says. “It was extremely important to observe and respect all of our cultures so we made the decision to make sure all communication was in both English and French. This meant two separate invitation suites, menus, wedding websites, and even ceremony scripts. It was also important for us to work with people of color, women, and local vendors to support the events professionals affected by the year long quarantine.” Estelle Bogaert of Madame Wedding Design was up to task and lined up all of the right vendors for them to choose between.
“Thomas and I joked that our wedding was a trust exercise because we were relying so much on his family and friends in France,” Makeda says. “His childhood friend Jean-Charles Auzanneau, who also happens to be the mayor of the town of Vouneuil-sous-Biard, recommended the Château le Clos de la Ribaudière and connected us with the owner and his venue coordinator Monica to facilitate site visits, countless Zoom and FaceTime calls, and emails to ensure we felt comfortable hosting the wedding there.”
“It was very important to me that we kept my Ghanaian traditions as part of our wedding because in my culture, that is the official marriage ceremony,” Makeda explains. “The white wedding, which was on Saturday, was the icing on the cake. We rented another venue, Château de Baillant, to host the Ghanaian Traditional Ceremony. All in all, we had two big weddings, one on Thursday and the other on Saturday.”
Makeda wanted the Ghanaian traditional ceremony and the white wedding to feel completely different but still part of the same story. “From the get-go, I knew I didn’t want the beautifully ornate body-con gowns worn by most West African brides on the wedding day,” she says. “I wanted my Ghanaian dress to still be authentically me, while still keeping with tradition. The first thing we needed to do was commission hand woven Kente cloth to be worn by Thomas and me as well as different Kente designs for the rest of the family. I chose white, purple, and gold as our primary colors for the Kente weaving.”
